MEET JENHOBOKEN MOM, COUNCIL PRESIDENT, AND BUSINESSWOMAN

Jen Giattino has called our city home for over 20 years, raising three boys, Joey, Jack and Alex, with her husband Joe in the 6th Ward. She has served the last eight years on the City Council representing the 6th Ward and has been honored by her peers, who have elected her to four terms as council president. Along the way she has rolled up her sleeves to sit on every council subcommittee, championed the acquisition of the BASF property, and brought rigorous analysis to large scale developments while rejecting sketchy tax abatements. But more than just a public servant, people think of Jen as a neighbor. The former stock exchange specialist may live on Seventh Street but she has a friend on every block, a passion for every corner of our urban village, and a serious concern for the future or our community and its people. That is why she has sponsored housing legislation for homeless veterans, worked with businesses to foster better community relations, and, more than anything, why she is committed to serving her neighbors. Jen sees the problems we all do: relentless overdevelopment, flooding and failing water mains and sewers, traffic and parking and, as a homeowner, the same outsized tax burden we have. But she also sees solutions. Rather than dictating plans from on high, rather than making grand promises that only come with more expense, Jen is a community leader who listens, solves and acts. She believes the whole community must engage in a conversation and arrive at the big decisions together, ones that allow for an exciting future for Hoboken without losing Hoboken’s cherished past. It’s a dedication she has always had—as a one-time professional ballet dancer, as a volunteer at the homeless shelter, as a co-founder of the Uptown farmers' market (now the Hoboken Farmers' Market) and, of course as an active parent at her children's classrooms. All of which is to say that Jen has already shown a tireless desire to to make Hoboken a better community.